One word can sum up Friday night. PRESSURE. We crumbled under it.
Pressure from weight of expectation. Pressure of playing away from home. Pressure from media exposure of motivational faxes. Pressure from being top of the table. Pressure from playing the Broncos. Pressure from lack of ball and lack of field position. Take your pick..... we didn't handle it.
We started in neutral, and soon found reverse. Same thing happened against the Dragons. Des should sit our pack down and make them watch Shane Webcke's performance on endless loop. If you want to be taken seriously in this comp, you've got to stand up like Webcke did on Friday. He set the paltform and the class of Lockyer, Berrigan, and McGuire capitalised.
Notice how we played better in the latter stages of the game when it was all over and the "pressure" was off. We had 17 guys who were overawed and were given a football lesson. Our front row was powderpuff and across the board we were ordinary (save for Watmough who was probably our best and put in). Thankfully the Broncos eased off, otherwise it could have been 50 if the had been in a killer mood.
On that performance we would struggle to make the 8. That was the biggest test to date and we failed miserably. There would have been no shame in losing to the Broncos, but that performance on Friday was inept. The true test is to see what we learn from it and how we bounce back. We have a team that has more ability and potential than was displayed at Suncorp, but they must become masters of their own on field destiny.